Orange Coast College Student Threatened With Expulsion After Recording Professor's Anti-Trump Tirade
COSTA MESA (CBSLA.com) — A political discussion in a college class touched off a firestorm.
A college professor went off on president-elect Donald Trump in her Orange Coast College class.
There are now threats of expulsion and threats of legal action.
CBS2's Stacey Butler listened to the controversial rant. The human sexuality teacher -- Olga Perez Stable Cox -- called Trump's election "an act of terrorism."
"Our nation is divided. We have been assaulted. It is an act of terrorism," she told the students.
She added, "One of the most frightening things for me, and most people in my life, is that the people who are committing the assault are among us."
That was part of the teacher's rant about Trump.
One student was so offended by the speech, he recorded it with his cellphone.
She also criticized Trump's cabinet picks, advisers and the vice president-elect.
"A white supremacist and a vice president that is one of the most anti-gay humans in this country," she said.
"At this point it's not even education anymore, its indoctrination," said Josh Recalde-Martinez, a member of the school's Young Republicans Club.
The group filed a formal complaint about the professor's rant. Another student complained about the teacher on RateMyTeacher.com.
"I felt censored and bullied if I did not agree with her opinions," the student wrote.
Political opinions she shared in-depth with the class.
"We are way beyond Republicans and Democrats, and we're really back to being in a civil war," she said, "and I don't mean it in a fighting way, but our nation is divided as clearly as it was in civil war times."
Recalde-Martinez posted the teacher's rant on his Facebook page. It has 18,000 views and hundreds of comments.
Thursday night, the professor's union posted a warning on its page. It condemned the student who recorded the video saying, "This is an illegal recording without the permission of the instructor. The student will be identified and may be facing legal action."
"They wanted it to be known so that maybe we would get scared and take down the video. But to the union I want to say we are not gonna be doing that," said Recalde-Martinez.
"The unions are acting like thugs, like bullies themselves," said attorney Shawn Steel.
The attorney is also the Republican National Committeeman from California. He volunteered to represent the Young Republicans.
He said the student who shot the video is afraid he may be suspended or expelled with only a week left in the semester.
"Every student knows it. If you stand up to your professor, 90 percent of the time the professor's going to punish you," said Steel.
Butler also spoke to the president of the college who chose not to go on camera because the incident is still under investigation. He did tell her the college encourages a discourse on current events between students and faculty when it's in context.
Butler also reached out to the teacher and her union for a comment and did not hear back from either one.